Tatau

I learned from my wife (who is from Sarawak) that there is a place in Sarawak called "Tatau". It used to be just a small town, Pekan Tatau, in the Bintulu District, but now it is a district by itself.

Now, what is interesting about this place is that the name sounds like the Malay phrase "tak tahu" (colloquially, often pronounced with the "h" silent), which means "don't know".

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Suppose that (and this is purely my imagination; any similarity to the real experience of a real person is entirely coincidental) a boy from Tatau goes to a school in a city in a different district because his family has moved there; on his first day in his new school, the following conversation between the boy and one of his not-so-well-informed teachers is very likely:

Teacher: Nama kamu siapa? (What is your name?)

Boy: Toh Ah Tau, cikgu. (~, teacher.)

Teacher: Kamu berasal dari mana? (Where do you hail from?)

Boy: Tatau, cikgu. (Sounds like "I don't know, teacher.")

Teacher: Tak tahu? (You don't know?)

Boy: Ya, Tatau. (Sounds like "Yes, I don't know.")

Teacher: Mengapa tak tahu? ("How come you don't know?" But it sounds like "Mengapa Tatau?" - Why Tatau? - to the boy.)

Boy (now very, very puzzled): Tak tahu. Saya bukannya ada pilihan... (I don't know. It's not like I had a choice...)

LOL.

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This reminds me of how "kangaroos" purportedly got their name. It might have gone like this:

British settler: What is this place called?

Local: Tak tahu.

:-D